For Arizona candidates, 1st campaign push is often an elbow

The jockeying between two Republican hopefuls began in the fall of 2012 with a meeting at the Phoenix Biltmore’s Paradise Bakery to discuss the future of Arizona politics.

Christine Jones, a former attorney for Web-hosting company Go Daddy, said she was thinking about running for governor.

So was state Treasurer Doug Ducey, a relative political newcomer, who, Jones recalled, was already apparently attempting to clear the GOP field for his own 2014 campaign.

Jones said Ducey recounted how “offended” he was when someone tried to talk him out of running for treasurer a few years ago. But then he spent the next 90 minutes trying to talk her out of running for governor, she said.

“Even then, he said, ‘You know, I really think it makes sense for you to run for an office and get your feet wet — why don’t you run for attorney general?’ ” she recalled during a phone interview with The Arizona Republic.

Ducey confirmed the two met that day, but he disputes Jones’ version of the encounter. Instead, he said, he wanted to seek her support in defeating a 2012 ballot initiative that would have permanently continued the temporary 1-cent-per-dollar sales tax.

But, Ducey added, he could see why a GOP candidate would have such a discussion with a potential rival.

“It’s understandable Republicans would be thinking this way. We just went through a presidential process where the Republican candidates chewed each other up and Barack Obama got a free ride,” Ducey said. “It’s easy to understand why people would want to avoid that scenario again in other races.

“At the same time,” he continued, “this is America — if you want to run for public office, then you get to run. No one should tell you what you should or shouldn’t do.”

Regardless of what happened between Jones and Ducey — who are now both neck-deep in preparations for the 2014 governor’s GOP primary race — the strategy of elbowing out competition happens at some level in nearly every election. Republicans and Democrats often use go-betweens to push others out of races.

With Arizona’s compressed election cycle, candidates have a short time — about six weeks, taking early voting into consideration — between the primary and general elections, in late August and early November, to sell themselves to voters, so they want to come out of the primary as unscathed as possible. A bloody primary can jeopardize a win in the general election.

But candidates and political observers say the approach is being used more frequently this election cycle than in the past, partly because so many statewide seats are in play, including governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer and the Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities.

Political consultants say the maneuvering has drawn more attention because in at least one instance, a former U.S. senator was involved.

Another motivation for the jostling is speculation about the potential involvement this year of “dark money” groups, which can spend heavily to influence political campaigns with little or no disclosure of the source of the money. As a result, potential candidates are no longer just sizing up how much money they can raise but must also consider whether they can withstand potential “dark money” resources.

“There are two campaigns: There’s the campaign we all think about, the one where everyone votes on Election Day,” said consultant Stan Barnes. “But there is a campaign before the campaign. That’s the one where it’s determined who is going to be in the race.”

The voters rarely seethat campaign.

But it has played out more publicly this cycle, partly because of a successful effort to “draft” former Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman to run for treasurer instead of governor, and because candidates have been vocal about efforts to squeeze them out.

Hallman, a Republican, had his sights on the state’s top job. In January, he launched a speaking tour. For several months, he traveled the state to talk to voters about their concerns. He filed paperwork with the secretary of state and launched a website trumpeting his accomplishments.

Then came the pressure, Hallman said,which included “a deluge of phone calls” from supporters who told him he was an attractive candidate but given the crowded gubernatorial field — “a circular firing squad of Republicans” — that he would be a better fit as treasurer.

Hallman dismisses any perception that he caved to pressure, saying his decision to bow out of the race for governor was based on a “sensible assessment” of his electability. His message resonates with voters, he said, but he recognized he could not raise enough money to match wealthy “self-funded” opponents.

By the time he bowed out of the race in September, there were at least six Republican gubernatorial candidates. He pointed out that Ducey and Jones are expected to raise millions of dollars, not including the independent-expenditure committees that are expected to be involved.

On Sept. 19, supporters wrote Hallman, saying, “Our goal in sending you this letter is to show you that if you were to change the elected office you seek from governor to state treasurer, you will have the support of Arizona residents who want to make sure you are part of our state’s public policy discussion in the future.”

Hallman said the request made sense. “I said ‘I’m happy to do this,’ because I’m sick of walking into a room and having everybody look at their shoes because there’s so many people running for governor and no one wants to commit.”

Sometimes such efforts backfire.

Jones said that after her meeting with Ducey, she continued to get pressure “from a number of people, some quite successful and influential,” to run for another office. She said the requests only solidified her decision to run.

“I don’t believe that small groups of people should pick representation for large groups of people,” she said. “It’s very dangerous when political consultants come in and say, in this election cycle it’s going to be this guy’s turn, and then next election cycle it’s going to be the other guy’s turn.”

Political consultant Chris Baker said several clients broached the strategy of suggesting their rivals pursue alternative offices, but he advised against it. He did not talk specifically about which candidates proposed using the strategy.

The strategy, he said, is almost always met with suspicion, and the messenger is never a neutral party.

“It’s kind of like a used-car salesman saying, ‘This car is awesome. You should buy it,’ ” Baker said. “There’s an insult there in that statement, and most candidates are like, ‘The hell with you; I’ll show you.’ ”

That was the case with Ken Bennett, another Republican running for governor. This fall, he was the subject of a draft movement aimed at persuading him to abandon his pursuit of the Ninth Floor.

Bennett, who formally announced his candidacy earlier this month, said Alan Heywood, chairman-elect of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and a supporter of Ducey’s campaign, tried to coax him into running for the Corporation Commission instead.

Bennett said he was puzzled by Heywood’s suggestion since they had talked about his campaign and Bennett considered “him as playing a role as a consultant of some sort.” At the end of the conversation, Bennett recalled, Heywood brought up the idea of him running for the commission instead. “I told him I was flattered, but I was running for governor,” Bennett said.

Weeks later, a website called draftkenbennettforacc.com popped up, led by Heywood. It featured a portrait of Bennett and accolades about his experience; it encouraged people to sign a petition to encourage him to run for the commission.

“The first attempt wasn’t insulting,” Bennett said. “To have it happen again as a ‘Draft Ken,’ (when) I clearly said I wasn’t interested, that was a bit confusing.”

Bennett added that he hasn’t “been able to figure out if his thing was ... an orchestrated effort by more politically powerful folks.”

Heywood did not return a call seeking comment.

In another high-profile attempt to sideline a candidate, former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl arranged a meeting last month to ask state Sen. Michele Reagan to run for the Corporation Commission instead of secretary of state. Reagan faces state Rep. Justin Pierce and businessman Wil Cardon in the GOP primary.

Reagan, who would not talk to The Republic about the meeting, told Kyl she wasn’t interested.

Corporation Commissioner Susan Bitter Smith also attended the meeting and described the exchange to The Republic. She said Kyl invited her to the meeting.

Kyl, a strong Ducey supporter, did not respond to a request for comment.

“I don’t believe anybody asked him to set it up,” Bitter Smith has said of Kyl. “This was the senator’s idea.”

The overtures happen across the aisle, with Democrats, too. But it tends to occur less often since there are fewer candidates, said consultant Robbie Sherwood. “It’s more like what happened to Hugh (Hallman) — you show up and no one talks to you anymore,” and the candidate buckles to the political pressure.

Fred DuVal, the lone Democratic candidate for governor, maintained his party’s members are “genetically resistant” to the practice and that he doesn’t remember a time in his career when he’s seen it done.

However Terry Goddard, the former attorney general, experienced it recently when he flirted with a bid to return to the office. Democrat Felecia Rotellini is running against incumbent Republican Tom Horne and Republican Mark Brnovich.

“A lot of supporters of Felecia thought they wanted her to have a clean shot, so I guess there was some talk,” Goddard said, adding that the approach was “very different” from the “headlock” approach that candidates like Hallman faced.

“You have elections for a reason,” Goddard said. “These are power plays, not democratic plays.”

Constantine Querard, a campaign consultant who represents conservative Republicans, said Democrats would be better served by having more aggressive primaries. Querard, who is leading the gubernatorial campaign of state Sen. Al Melvin, R-Tucson, said no one leaned on Melvin to get out.

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